ERIC Number: EJ1023251
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2013
Pages: 15
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0307-5079
EISSN: N/A
The Construction of Academic Identity in the Changes of Finnish Higher Education
Ylijoki, Oili-Helena; Ursin, Jani
Studies in Higher Education, v38 n8 p1135-1149 2013
This article sets out to explore how academics make sense of the current transformations of higher education and what kinds of academic identities are thereby constructed. Based on a narrative analysis of 42 interviews with Finnish academics, nine narratives are discerned, each providing a different answer as to what it means to be an academic in the present-day university. Narratives of resistance, loss, administrative work overload and job insecurity are embedded in a regressive storyline, describing deterioration of academic work and one's standing. In a sharp contrast, narratives of success, mobility and change agency rely on a progressive storyline which sees the current changes in a positive light. Between these opposites, narratives of work-life balance and bystander follow stable storylines, involving a neutral stance toward university transformations. The paper concludes that academic identities have become increasingly diversified and polarized due to the managerial and structural changes in higher education.
Descriptors: Higher Education, Educational Change, Foreign Countries, Self Concept, College Faculty, Professional Identity, Family Work Relationship, Interviews, Personal Narratives, Faculty Workload, Job Security, Teacher Attitudes, Faculty Mobility, Organizational Change, Work Attitudes
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Publication Type: Reports - Research; Journal Articles
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Finland
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A